Long anticipated 2018 is just slightly over a day away. I am excited to start a new year with a clean slate. Although, i realize that any day can be a clean slate if we wish it to be. The first semester of school is over and I hope to use and turn this site into a functional blog. Capturing my journey towards masters and defining the next chapter of my life.
I hope to be better to myself and be much happier because worrying about tings I don’t have control over is not healthy.
Whoa… my first semester of grad school is over. When the semester started the end seemed so far out…. I knew I had a huge undertaking ahead, to figure out where I fit and what the rest of my life will be about. Starting school seemed like the right daunting step to take on. Now, fifteen weeks later I feel like the time on this beautiful journey of self discovery was gone in a split second!
Last week my classmates and I practiced creative visualization. A very fun and exciting excercise of looking into future we want to see come to fruition. The scene is set 3 years from now. Each of us shared our hopes and dreams. Two stories that really resonated with me the most were Heather Meyer and Tim Coffin’s. Both of them reflected on positive outcomes while acknowledging some difficulties along the way.
Heather wrote about the time she found herself back at MCAD to compete her Masters in Sustainable Design and finding her purpose in the program.
ONE STEP BACK TWO STEPS FORWARD
This past week I took 3 days off to fly to New York to attend 4th annual Biofabricate conference and meet with my classmate who flew in all the way from Denmark. I decided to use the time on my flight out and reflect on my personal journey over the last few months. Sadly, still feeling under pressure I ended up reflecting more on the negative than the positive aspects of my life.
CREATIVE LEADERSHIP KIT
End of semester is nearing (one more week eek) and we are working on tool kit for leadership. Below you will find some of the most impactful lessons I got introduced to over the course of the Creative Leadership class. Some are videos that I find very inspiring for when I feel down and need a pick me up reminder. Others are useful exercises and readings to keep me on track.
Process of Creative Visualization…
After a week long break, which seemed much longer than it actually was, we are back at it! Learning and envisioning the future without limits. Assignment for week 13 was quite fun. In solitude we were to visualize a morning 3 years from now and a scenario that looks something like this…
It’s Thursday, December 2, 2020.
Socrates Cybercafé
I love challenging norms, defying logic and asking “why not” question. This past week wasn’t any different. One of the assignments we had in our Creative Leadership course was to organize a group of 5-15 people and lead a Socratic Inquiry session. [Note: This is based on Socrates Café®, as presented in http://www.philosopher.org/socrates-cafeacute.html].
While it was hard to get complete strangers to sign up and participate,
Weekly Blog Review
This past week we got to do some experiential learning and practice creative leadership in a safe and trusted group settings. We both facilitated and participated in guided exercises and we sought and provided personal feedback to our peers. Therefore the blog reviews I picked for this week reflect back on some of the questions posed and lessons learned from the group studies.
Firstly, my trusted and favorite leadership blog Seth Godin’s blog.
Wherever you go, go with all your heart. – Confucius
I haven’t traveled much in the last month. But my journey is never void of places to visit and personalities to meet, including my own. In retrospect, this creative leadership journey of self reflection and deep analysis of leadership behaviors left me with more questions than answers. Like an onion, with each new layer pealed there is a new self discovery.
Each week I learn something new about myself and I learn more about my MASD colleagues. I am inspired by their stories and journeys. Understanding their point of view better, makes me understand myself better. I don’t know them, but it feels like I do. I wrote 2 recommendations for meet ups and received two back. Learning about how others perceive me was eye opening. Call me crazy, but I would love to meet all those people sitting on the other side of words and experiences I am enlightened by.